Recruitment Conference
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September 14, 2009 Dear Friends, Every contribution that comes into our office brightens our day. We are MUSTE truly thankful for your accompaniment News from the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute in our work promoting active nonviolence. If you were away when our last appeal letter arrived in the mail, please take a NOTES moment to read it on our website and respond with the largest contribution VOL. 17, NUMBER 1 Fall 2009 you can afford. If you have given already, we ask you Youth Pave the Way at Counter- to consider giving again, and asking others to give. Recruitment Conference Your help is urgently needed. The by Arlene Inouye O N Muste Institute has no cash reserves; the A Y The Muste Institute’s T funding to keep our programs going C E Counter Recruitment Fund J O trickles in daily in the form of donations R made a $1,500 grant for the P , from all of you who are inspired by the National Counter-Recruit- W O K projects we support. ment and Demilitarization N H A J Some of your gifts are small, some are Conference organized in July K C by the National Network I R large—and they all are critical to Opposing the Militarization Y B sustaining this important work. We O of Youth (NNOMY). Muste T O realize that many of you are already Institute co-director Jeanne H P giving as much as you can afford. If you Strole attended and used the know others who share our vision for a opportunity to connect better world, you can help still more by groups with information and guidance about applying for reaching out and getting them involved. grants. This article is by If you’re shy about directly asking Arlene Inouye of the Los your friends to donate, you can share Angeles-based Coalition for Alternatives to Militarism in our Schools (CAMS), which this newsletter, pass along the link to our received Muste Institute grants for counter-recruitment work in 2005 and 2008. website, and tell people what this work means to you. Many people still don’t Nearly 300 people from 35 states poured into the Friends Center and Roosevelt University in Chicago the weekend of July 17-19, 2009 for the National Counter- know about the Muste Institute, so Recruitment and Demilitarization Conference. The faces represented what the spreading the word is a vital first step. continued on page 2 Also, don't forget to make use of our pamphlets on nonviolence, featuring H N wisdom from Martin Luther King, Jr., I Hondurans P O Jeannette Rankin, Emma Goldman, C Y B Henry David Thoreau and more. These Resist Coup O T beautiful and affordable pamphlets make O H perfect gifts. Use the order form on the August 26, 2009: Members of P COPINH, the Civic Council of back page of Muste Notes to buy them Grassroots and Indigenous for friends, for yourself, or to donate to Organizations of Honduras, chain your local library and schools. themselves in front of the main cathedral in Tegucigalpa to protest the June 28 military coup and the de We look forward to hearing from you. facto government’s criminalization of social movements. COPINH was the main organizer of last October’s Hemispheric Gathering Against Militarization, featured in the Winter 2009 issue of Muste Notes . Since the coup Sincerely, COPINH has been at the forefront of daily nonviolent protest actions like this one, which seek not to merely reverse the coup but to build participatory democracy in Honduras. For information about what you can do to support the Honduran social movements, see the website of Rights Action, a past Muste Institute grantee: http://rightsaction.org. Jeanne Strole and Jane Guskin 2 • Muste Notes Fall 2009 Counter-Recruitment Grants, June 2009 The Muste Institute’s Counter Recruitment expand outreach and education about for an educational summit in Denver Fund makes small grants for grassroots efforts the realities of military service to youth for the caravan and local activists. to inform young people about the realities of in Bay Area schools with high recruit - National Network Opposing the military service, help them protect their pri - ment rates. Militarization of Youth (NNOMY), vacy from recruiters and refer them to Intercommunity Justice & Peace Pacific Palisades, CA: $1,500 for the non-military education and employment Center, Cincinnati, OH: $500 to dis - National Counter-Recruitment and options. Our next deadline for proposals is tribute educational materials to Demilitarization Conference. October 5. Guidelines are on our website at guidance counselors in Cincinnati area Wisconsin Network for Peace & www.ajmuste.org/counter-recruit.htm. public schools. Justice, Madison, WI: $500 for coordina - Indigenous Youth Sovereignty Project, tion with other groups in Wisconsin to American Friends Service Committee, Denver, CO: $1,500 to bring a caravan of distribute educational materials to San Francisco Chapter, San Francisco, activists from California to the counter- guidance counselors in the public CA: $1,000 for Full Picture, a program to recruitment conference in Chicago, and schools. O panel on “Education, Militarism and N Youth Pave the Way A Y Counter Recruitment: where we have T C E (continued from page 1) come from and where we are going.” J O R counter recruitment movement is all An analysis of the history of the P , about and how it has grown over the counter-recruitment movement led us W O K past five years into a diverse and to the need for a long term strategy. N H A J vibrant grassroots movement, Students talked about the activism they K C including veterans, youth, educators, have initiated in their schools and the I R Y parents and community activists. importance of adult mentors and B O CAMS was heavily involved in this teachers. The event ended with a cere - T O H conference. We invested many hours mony awarding a graduation certificate P into planning, fundraising, and we and cap to David Morales, a student brought along a team of eight youth and who was denied the right to graduate four adults from the Los Angeles area. with his class because of his activism On Friday night, students, a consci - and opposition to firing ranges in the entious objector, a long time San Diego Unified School District. Youth activists made up almost half the counter-recruitment organizer and an On Sunday, breakout groups and a conference attendance. Groups of students activist/researcher in the Chicago general session helped focus our work traveled from California, New York, Georgia schools shared their points of view in a on specific goals and strategies to col - and other states, and youth volunteers from laborate on in the coming year. These Chicago provided support at the conference site. include: developing resources for youth by youth, including a list of music and about its Opt Out and ASVAB policies, A.J. Muste videos with youth appeal; organizing a and other activists started linking up Memorial Institute national campaign and research around with resources as soon as they got 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012 JROTC; centralizing resources on home. phone (212) 533-4335 fax (212) 228-6193 expanded alternatives for different I saw the youth from Los Angeles email <[email protected]> states; and using new data and tech - personally grow and soak up the expe - website: www.ajmuste.org nology to track enlistment, military rience, applying it to some further steps programs and military van schedules. back home. One is ready to reactivate Board of Directors I feel that the conference intention - the peace club at Venice High School, Susan Kent Cakars Peter Muste, Chair ally created the space for unrepresented several are working on sharing their James A. Cole Jill Sternberg groups to be validated. It was important stories on the radio for KPFK Pacifica Christine Halvorson Nina Streich to reach out to communities across the Radio, and two community college stu - Melissa Jameson Robert T. Taylor nation and offer scholarships for travel. dents are collaborating on developing Carol Kalafatic Martha Thomases, This was made possible by grants from art projects for CAMS. A student at Bernice Lanning, Vice Chair the Muste Institute and many national Pasadena City College was inspired to Secretary John Zirinsky, and local organizations and individ - organize other students on campus as David McReynolds Treasurer uals. CAMS also raised funds through they face devastating budget cuts. Staff art shows, events and an appeal letter. Can a weekend really make that Jeanne Strole, Co-Director Participants left the conference much difference? I believe that the Jane Guskin, Co-Director feeling empowered and equipped with youth will never forget the experience, Rose Regina Lawrence, key strategies and tools to take back to and that the conference signified the Assistant to the Co-Directors their communities. A day after the con - uniting and turning point of the counter Salvador Suazo, Superintendent ference one veteran had already recruitment movement in an unprece - contacted his school district to find out dented way. Fall 2009 Muste Notes • 3 Nonviolence Training Grants, July 2008 - June 2009 The International Nonviolence Training In a training $3,000 in January 2009 for a training for Fund (INTF) makes grants for nonviolence organized by activists and community workers from trainings outside the U.S. or in indigenous Kenya Pastoralist Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, communities within the U.S. The next Journalist Network, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro, to deadline is December 4, 2009. Guidelines Asha Ahmed, provide them with tools to strengthen and application forms are on our website. Chair of Women nonviolent action and group conflict Forthspring Inter Community Group , Peacebuilders, transformation throughout their commu - Belfast, Northern Ireland: $3,000 in June leads participants nities and the region.